US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (right) arrives at Beijing Capital International Airport on July 6, 2023 (POOL/Pedro PARDO)
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen advocated Friday in Beijing a “healthy competition” between China and the United States, with which it is “virtually impossible” to decouple, despite trade tensions between the two leading world powers.
“We want healthy economic competition, not survival of the fittest, with a fair set of rules, which can benefit both countries,” Yellen said during a meeting with Prime Minister Li Qiang, who was specifically tasked in his country of economic issues.
The Treasury Secretary, who is making her first trip to China since taking office in 2021, also called for “disagreements” not to “deteriorate” relations between the two countries “unnecessarily”.
These statements come as some US politicians have been calling for months to reduce Washington’s dependence on the Asian giant, amid rising geopolitical tensions.
Ms Yellen called for caution on this point. “A decoupling of the world’s two largest economies would be destabilizing for the global economy,” she warned of US business leaders.
This visit comes a few weeks after that of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in the Biden administration’s desire to renew physical contact with Beijing, after three years of almost total isolation from China due to the health crisis. .
“In the Biden administration, Ms. Yellen seems to be more pragmatic” than others, Tao Wenzhao, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told AFP.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during a meeting with US business leaders, in Beijing on July 7, 2023 (AFP / Pedro PARDO)
“His visit is welcome, and from a practical point of view, it should allow the two parties to come closer,” he said.
“I think we are reshaping, rebuilding China-US relations,” Tao said.
– “Real conversation” –
In the morning, the American Secretary of the Treasury was already able to have a “real conversation” with her former counterpart, the former Deputy Prime Minister Liu He, as well as the outgoing governor of the Chinese central bank, Yi Gang, according to a Treasury official.
“They discussed the global economic outlook and those of the United States and China respectively,” the source added.
This Treasury official warned Thursday that the United States did not expect specific progress during this visit but that it hoped for constructive exchanges that could pave the way for more concrete discussions.
“This trip is an opportunity to communicate and avoid communication errors or misunderstandings,” Ms. Yellen pleaded on Thursday.
The main sticking point is in semiconductors, with the imposition in recent months of restrictions to cut off Chinese companies’ supply of American technology, including chips.
China, which seeks to become autonomous in this area, believes that these measures are aimed at hindering its development and maintaining American supremacy.
On Monday, Beijing announced restrictions on exports of two metals essential to semiconductors and of which it is the main producer. A measure widely perceived as retaliation for American pressure.
– Investigations and searches –
“I am concerned about the new export controls recently announced by China (…) We are in the process of evaluating the impact of these measures”, reacted Friday Ms. Yellen to officials of American companies.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during a meeting with US business leaders, in Beijing on July 7, 2023 (AFP / Pedro PARDO)
The latter are increasingly worried about the business climate in the country, after searches and investigations launched in recent months against some of them.
Paradoxically, since the lifting of health restrictions at the start of the year, many of the big American bosses have visited China, like the general manager of Apple Tim Cook or the founder of Microsoft Bill Gates.
The latter even had the supreme honor of being received by Chinese President Xi Jinping, as co-president of the Bill and Melinda Gates philanthropic foundation.
Elon Musk had met with senior leaders, before going to Shanghai to visit the assembly site of a gigantic factory, inaugurated by Tesla in 2019.
2023-07-07 08:57:24
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